Michele Bachmann launches scathing attack on Tim Pawlenty

In a statement just released from her presidential campaign, Michele Bachmann delivers a harsh counterattack on her former home-state governor, hitting back at his charge that she lacks the experience to be president and blaming Tim Pawlenty for a "multi-billion-dollar budget mess" back home:

"Executive experience is not an asset if it simply means bigger and more intrusive government.

"Governor Pawlenty said in 2006, 'The era of small government is over... the government has to be more proactive and more aggressive.' That's the same philosophy that, under President Obama, has brought us record deficits, massive unemployment, and an unconstitutional health care plan.

"Actions speak louder than words. When I was fighting against the unconstitutional individual mandate in healthcare, Governor Pawlenty was praising it. I have fought against irresponsible spending while Governor Pawlenty was leaving a multi-billion-dollar budget mess in Minnesota. I fought cap-and-trade. Governor Pawlenty backed cap-and-trade when he was Governor of Minnesota and put Minnesota into the multi-state Midwest Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. While Governor Pawlenty was praising TARP — the $700 billion bailout in 2008 — I worked tirelessly against it and voted against it. I have demonstrated leadership and the courage of my convictions to change Washington, stop wasteful spending, lower taxes, put Americans back to work and turn our economy around. I'm a hard worker who exhibits that courage in the halls of Congress and will take that same conviction to the White House."

Bachmann's decision to engage Pawlenty, instead of shrugging off his criticism as she's done so far, is a sign that the Iowa campaign has moved into a new phase, and that Bachmann is starting to view Pawlenty as a competitor worth fighting.

UPDATE: Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant responds with a statement of his own, dismissing Bachmann's attack as factually inaccurate — and dismissing the congresswoman's House record as a series of "speeches and ... failed amendments":

"Congresswoman Bachmann has her facts wrong. The truth is that there is very little difference between Governor Pawlenty and Congresswoman Bachmann on their issue positions. The difference is that when Governor Pawlenty was scoring conservative victories to cut spending, pass market-based health care reform, and transform a supreme court from liberal to conservative, and was elected twice in a very blue state, Congresswoman Bachmann was giving speeches and offering failed amendments, all while struggling mightily to hold onto the most Republican house seat in the state. In order to beat Barack Obama, Republicans need someone who can unite conservatives with a proven track record of winning conservative results and tough elections — that's Governor Pawlenty. The Governor looks forward to discussing these issues eye-to-eye with voters in town halls across Iowa next week."

It remains to be seen how much these two will actually litigate the factual charges here, or whether they'll just keep lacing into each other in broad terms. The argument is a bit asymmetrical: Bachmann's attacking Pawlenty for the alleged presence of some black marks on his record, while Pawlenty is attacking Bachmann for the alleged absence of any substantive record at all.

Readers' Comments (63)

Interesting. So what Bachmann wants you to know here is that she is lunatic. She denies human-caused climate change - something that's long been the consensus of the scientific community now. She thinks the country would have been better off if half our banks failed, causing a 1930s-type run on them that would have sent the country spiraling into a depression. So even though TARP has now been paid back to the taxpayers (with interest), TARP was evil. And to cap it all off, she thinks the GOP's OWN health care reform proposal of 1993 - which is where the idea of an individual mandate began - is unconstitutional.

She's an irrational extremist and darned proud of it. Well okay... at least she's in the right party for it.

Mr Burns please. He doesn't have to be a real 'competitor' for her to stand up for herself against mischaracterizations and putting someone in his place. Talk about glass houses. He obviously gets press so it's no different than if he were a media reporter etc.... I'm sure the campaign felt like enough is enough.

He's what SIXTH in Iowa? lol He's not much of anything so far as a threat to her campaign except for spreading garbage rather than talking about issues.

I have demonstrated leadership and the courage of my convictions to change Washington, stop wasteful spending, lower taxes, put Americans back to work and turn our economy around. I'm a hard worker who exhibits that courage in the halls of Congress

Pawlenty is an empty suit. His type of politics has brought us to where we are. Commenters like B2o2 are clueless. The Fed prints money out of thin air, robbing savers, the middle class and everyone else who has the audacity to pay their own way and he thinks that's just dandy. Don't let the truth get in the way of your ideology, Bozo. I'm not a Bachman fan, but she's right about Timbo.

She hasn't done crap since she has been office.............but she will take farm subs and medicaid for her hubby.........both of which are a waste and abuse of the system...........faking out the fostercare system........."I raised 23 kids."..........the longest any kid was in her care was under a year and the rest were a couple of months..........and she calls that raising, no that would be providing temp. shelter..........what a fraud!

In fact, Bachmann is right on all these points. It is the redistributionist Left under community-organizer-in chief Obama that have brought this country to a state of fiscal collapse today. The polls show that voters back Bachmann, not Obama.

The Left and its RINO cohorts, like "dirty-tricks" Pawlenty, are in a state of desperation at the onrush of the Bachmann bandwagon. A smart pol like Chris Mathews has repeatedly pointed out to his friends in the Obama-leaning MSM that Bachmann connects with voters and has a great shot at the Republican nomination. The polls back him up.

Fortunately, most the the bloggers and pundits from the Demented Left blogosphere, as well as the DNC, are still mired in their parallel universe, where the only Bachmann they see is the "crazy she-devil" caricature from their liberal fantasy world. So amusing and pathetic!

Juan Williams wrote: Whenever the press attacks Bachmann she "gets a flood of support and money. She becomes ‘Every Woman,’ a misunderstood Tea Party mother of five facing down an elitist, arrogant, Obama-leaning press corps." The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on. 7/19/11 A national poll from Public Policy Polling shows Bachmann: 21% of Republican primary voters vs. 20% for Mitt Romney.

I'm sorry, she did do one thing............she helped put together the T-party wing of the house...........one crazy banding together with other crazies to form the "New Know-Nothing" party for 2012!..........(2013, not so sure about!)

Pawlenty never said the "era of small government" is over. He was quoting what someone else said and refuting it in an interview with the Minneapolis newspaper, which has since issued a correction noting that. See it refuted on the Rush Limabguh show at http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ho...

Pawlenty did not leave a budget debt in Minnesota. Every budget he signed was in the black and the debt Bachmann is referring to is a projection of what would happen if Democrats upped all of the big government spending they want after Pawlenty's term as governor.

Governor Pawlenty never praised the individual mandate.

"I was presented formally with recommendations from commissions who looked at all this stuff and I rejected my own commission’s recommendations because at least one time, and maybe more than once they had an individual mandate in it,” Pawlenty told National Review. “[I] kicked the recommendations out within days, I think, of the recommendations coming forward." http://www.nationalreview.com/...

What Pawlenty did was reject Obamacare http://bit.ly/fVMRIn and advocate market reforms: http://bit.ly/jtfqBV and he signed on the state to the Florida lawsuit challenging Obamacare in court.

Pawlenty has condemned TARP and cap and trade, called for less spending in government and had a very conservative fiscal record as governor moving MN from #2 highest tax state down to 12th. http://bit.ly/jtfqBV His record is so good, the Cato Institute gave Pawlenty an A grade for lowering taxes, and balancing the budget. http://bit.ly/h1OAWZ

polls aren't real votes and she can't keep up the deer in the headlight answering when confronted with a real question, but I can all but assure you she will play the victim and the media is out to get her.....you can bet on that.............and as far as polls go, you might want to lean toward the real instead of your dreams:

The only reason she is hot right now (on the right of course), is because she won't say anything other than Obama hating talking points.........look at the others, as soon as they displayed their own voice on a issue, they dropped like flies........she is just hoping to outlast the others, but after Iowa, the gloves will come off and her own party will hit her on all of her bs.........and really make her head puond!